American Journal of Botany: Most Compositae (Asteraceae) are descendants of a paleohexaploid and all share a paleotetraploid ancestor with the Calyceraceae

July 1, 2016

Michael S Barker 1, Zheng Li 2, Thomas I Kidder 2, Chris R Reardon 2, Zhao Lai 3, Luiz O Oliveira 4, Moira Scascitelli 5, Loren H Rieseberg 6 Abstract Premise of the study: Like many other flowering plants, members of the Compositae (Asteraceae) have a polyploid ancestry. Previous analyses found evidence for an ancient duplication or possibly triplication in the early evolutionary history of the family. We sought to better […]

SA Business Journal: Cancer money to boost local pediatric research

June 3, 2016

The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas has awarded nearly $11 million to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in its latest funding round. That award includes $5 million to help establish the Texas Pediatric Patient-Derived Xenograft Facility. Peter Houghton, director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at the […]

UT Health SA Newsroom: CPRIT awards $10.9 million to Greehey institute for cancer research

May 20, 2016

The Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at the Health Science Center garnered $10.9 million from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)―a larger amount than any other academic institution in the state. The Health Science Center received 24 percent of the $45.3 million awarded to 13 academic institutions on May 18. The grant was the […]

UT Health SA Newsroom: CPRIT awards $10.9 million to Greehey institute for cancer research

May 20, 2016

The Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at the Health Science Center garnered $10.9 million from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)―a larger amount than any other academic institution in the state. The Health Science Center received 24 percent of the $45.3 million awarded to 13 academic institutions on May 18. The grant was the […]

Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology: Identifying novel therapeutic agents using xenograft models of pediatric cancer

May 18, 2016

Raushan T. Kurmasheva & Peter J. Houghton Abstract In the USA, the overall cure rate for all childhood cancers is seventy percent, and in many patients that ultimately fail curative therapy, initial responses to current multimodality treatments (surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy) are good, with overall 5-year event-free survival approaching 80 %. However, current approaches to curative […]

Molecular Cancer Therapy: The Bromodomain BET Inhibitor JQ1 Suppresses Tumor Angiogenesis in Models of Childhood Sarcoma

May 15, 2016

Hemant K Bid 1, Doris A Phelps 1, Linlin Xaio 1, Denis C Guttridge 2, Jiayuh Lin 1, Cheryl London 3, Laurence H Baker 4, Xiaokui Mo 5, Peter J Houghton 6 Abstract The bromodomain and extra-terminal domain inhibitor JQ1 has marked antitumor activity against several hematologic malignancies as well as solid tumor models. Here, we investigated its activity in vitro and in vivo against models of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. […]

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease: Vascular mTOR-dependent mechanisms linking the control of aging to Alzheimer’s disease

May 1, 2016

Abstract Aging is the strongest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). With the discovery of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) as a critical pathway controlling the rate of aging in mice, molecules at the interface between the regulation of aging and the mechanisms of specific age-associated diseases can be identified. We will review […]

Clinical Cancer Research: Recurrent Mutations of Chromatin-Remodeling Genes and Kinase Receptors in Pheochromocytomas and Paragangliomas

May 1, 2016

Rodrigo A. Toledo, Yuejuan Qin, Zi-Ming Cheng, Qing Gao, Shintaro Iwata, Gustavo M. Silva, Manju L. Prasad, I. Tolgay Ocal, Sarika Rao, Neil Aronin, Marta Barontini, Jan Bruder, Robert L. Reddick, Yidong Chen, Ricardo C.T. Aguiar and Patricia L.M. Dahia Abstract Purpose: Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL) are genetically heterogeneous tumors of neural crest origin, but the molecular basis of most PPGLs is unknown. Experimental Design: We performed exome or transcriptome sequencing of 43 samples from 41 patients. A validation set of 136 PPGLs was used for amplicon-specific resequencing. In […]

PLOS One: Combined Gene Expression and RNAi Screening to Identify Alkylation Damage Survival Pathways from Fly to Human

April 21, 2016

Alfeu Zanotto-Filho, Ravi Dashnamoorthy, Eva Loranc, Luis H. T. de Souza, José C. F. Moreira, Uthra Suresh, Yidong Chen, Alexander J. R. Bishop Abstract Alkylating agents are a key component of cancer chemotherapy. Several cellular mechanisms are known to be important for its survival, particularly DNA repair and xenobiotic detoxification, yet genomic screens indicate that […]